The incident occurred shortly before 10 p.m. on Thursday evening at Brussels Airport. “The takeoff of a Scandinavian Airlines plane was interrupted,” says Brussels Airport spokeswoman Ariane Goossens. “The aircraft had started take-off from the taxiway instead of the runway. The taxiway only serves to move aircraft between the terminal and the runway.”
The plane was supposed to take off towards Copenhagen at 8:30 PM, but departed from our country towards the Danish capital with an hour and a half delay. So something went wrong during take-off around 9:54 p.m.
Fortunately, the crew was able to stop the Airbus A320neo in time and safely, with just a sigh of relief from the kerosene tanks. Speeds of up to 220 kilometers per hour have already been achieved on the taxiway.
Psychological assistance
The airport fire brigade responded immediately. “And the federal police also arrived on the scene, including to provide psychological assistance,” says Goossens. “There were no injuries.” The emergency services evacuated the 135 passengers. At 12:30 am, according to Goossens, the evacuation was still underway.
“The airline will be responsible for the further care of the travelers. They will no longer be able to depart this night,” it said. “Scandinavian Airlines will further inform passengers about the further progress and the reception of travelers.”
No impact
The incident had no impact on the operation of the airport. “There were no consequences for other scheduled flights and there will be no consequences on Friday morning,” the spokeswoman said.
How exactly the incident could have happened will be further investigated. No clarity could be provided about this on Thursday night.